Stories, analysis, highlights, and everything Yankees from an up & coming sports journalist.

Yankees Drop Fifth Straight to Twins, Rodriguez Homers, Notes

Spring Training is simply practice. It’s easy to talk about and it’s easy to sum it up – yes we are talking about practice. Of late, the Yankees have not been practicing very well, dropping their fifth straight Grapefruit League game today against a team they usually have no problem beating, the Minnesota Twins. The Bombers lost a squadoosh, 9-2.

The highlight of the afternoon was a solo home run hit by Alex Rodriguez in the bottom of the second inning. His homer tied the game at one and was his second of the spring.

The only other run the Yankees plated was a sacrifice fly in the eighth inning off the bat of Kevin Russo which knocked in Eric Chavez.

The Twins roughed up starter Freddy Garcia for four earned runs on six hits in 2 2/3 innings. Garcia walked two and struck out three, but was scuffling from the get-go. In the top of the first, Jeff Bailey singled to score Denard Span.

In the bottom of the third the Twins took the lead, scoring three runs. Luke Hughes doubled to drive in Bailey. He later came to the plate, as did Bailey, on a ground-rule double by Rene Rivera later in the frame, giving Minnesota a 4-1 edge.

The Twins widened their lead in the fourth, scoring four more runs. The highlight of the inning was a three-run blast off the bat of Brian Dinkelman. Earlier in the inning Hughes reached on an error by Derek Jeter, as the Yankee Captain dropped a popup in the infield.

Jeter’s error allowed Span to cross the plate. Leading 8-2 in the ninth, Chris Herrmann grounded into a force out, permitting Justin Huber to score and give the Twins nine runs for the game.

The Yankees, now 6-10-2 in Grapefruit League play, will visit the Red Sox tomorrow night.

Notes & Things to Look Out For

·It’s amazing how things unfold sometimes. Recently I have sung the praises of the starting pitching and as soon as I commend them, they begin to falter. Freddy Garcia had a rough day. 2 2/3 innings pitched, four earned runs, six hits, two walks, and three Ks. His ERA this spring is now 4.70 and he holds a 1-1 record. Is his bid for a spot in the rotation in jeopardy now? Probably not, but I think the Yankees are going to be watching him a little closer from now on.

·Although the Yankees haven’t been scoring a lot of runs, the regulars have been hitting the ball pretty hard. Alex Rodriguez went 2-for-3 with a solo home run today. He is batting .440 at press time and as documented, he is in great shape. I read a few days ago that he “feels like he is in 2007 form.” If you recall, A-Rod hit 54 homers that season with 156 RBIs and secured a .314 batting average. I would like to see that again.

·Mark Teixeira added another spring hit and was 1-for-3 today. He is hitting .360 to this point. Hopefully he will finally start hot instead of pressing at the beginning of the year. Either way, he is raking this spring.

·Mariano Rivera, wearing his socks high, struck out the side in the bottom of the sixth. It was his first spring outing and he looked dominant, to no one’s surprise. There really isn’t anything to say that hasn’t already been said about how Rivera continues to shut down virtually every hitter he faces. He is one of the natural wonders of the world, or at least a natural wonder of baseball. He yawned after he walked off the mound, as if to say, “No big deal.” Nine of the 12 pitches he tossed were strikes.

·Rafael Soriano gave up his first hit of the spring in the fifth inning of today’s game, but worked around it. He surrendered a single to Denard Span, but allowed no runs. No walks or strikeouts, but he is a powerful force – at least that’s what I sense out of him. I get the feeling he is going to be one heck of a setup man.

·This afternoon, Derek Jeter made a defensive blunder by Luis Castillo’ing that popup in the top of the fourth. (Yes, I turned Luis Castillo into a verb, meaning Jeter dropped the ball). At the plate Jeter was 1-for-3, snatching a single that would have played for a 1-3 putout, if pitcher Glen Perkins could have fielded the ball cleanly. The ball caromed off Perkins and Jeter reached. I’m not so worried about Jeter; you can’t be. He generally puts up the same types of numbers every year, and it is easy to know what to expect from him. But it is becoming evident to me that the Yankee Captain isn’t the same player he was 10 years ago.

·The Yanks made their first round of cuts this weekend. Adam Warren, D.J. Mitchell, Andy Sisco, Brian Anderson, Buddy Carlysle, and Hector Noesi have been reassigned to Minor League camp. More cuts will be coming soon I’m sure, what with Opening Day two weeks from this Thursday.

·In yesterday’s 6-5 exhibition loss to the Washington Nationals, A.J. Burnett gave up a two-run home run to Michael Morse, but recovered to retire the next nine batters he faced. He struck out the side in the first inning. It’s good to see him in this form; not getting rattled after giving up a long ball. Burnett is looking a lot better than he did last year around this time. Credit him with nine innings for the spring so far, and just two runs allowed.

1 Comment

Why is it every time I hear the name “Brian Dinkelman” that poor ******* who stormed off “American Idol” seems to pop into my head?
Great to see another Dinkelman doing his best to erase that sorted family name past. But it is guys like him that make Spring Training fun. The guys who might not get the huge press outside of their minor league affiliates who finally get to strut their wares in the MLB camp.
It might seem like ptratice, but to some of these guys wearing numbers from 60-99, it is the start of a dream, or the end of the reality….Still Brian made the Dinkelman clan proud today.

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